The Saraki Support Group (SSG) has dismissed the allegation of the Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) that the tenure of former Senate President Bukola Saraki was a disaster.
In a statement last week, BMO had tackled Saraki, saying he was envious of the smooth relationship between the executive and legislative arms of government under Saraki’s successor.
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But in a counter statement on Sunday, Earl Osaro Onaiwu, Director, Saraki Support Group, said, “We believe such a statement could only be signed by failed professionals and bootlickers who could not appreciate the work of the legislature in a democracy. Otherwise, Akinsiju and Maduekwe would not have made such ignorant assessment of the Eighth Senate under Saraki which has been adjudged as the best Senate since the return of democracy in Nigeria in 1999. When we read their statement, the question that came to our mind is whether these people live in Nigeria or they reside in Siberia where they have no access to news about governance in Nigeria.
“The facts are there that the Eighth Senate passed the most bills since 1999 and they are not just ordinary bills. The bills passed by the 8th Senate are Bills that helped to give direction to the economy, strengthen the nation’s ability to tackle corruption, positively affected the lives of the people, and seek to make Nigerians secure.
“Some of the Laws passed by the 8th Senate like the North East Development Commission (NEDC) Act, Police Trust Funds Act, Secured Transactions in Movable Assets Credit Act, and the Credit Bureau Reporting Act ( both of which led to the upgrade of Nigerians by 24 places on the World Bank Ease of Doing Business rankings), Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission Act, Prohibition and Protection of Persons from Lynching by Mob Action and Extra Judicial Execution Bill (2017), Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit Act, Whistleblowers Protection Bill and Discrimination Against Persons With Disability (Prohibition) Act, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission Act, Prohibition of Sexual Harassment in Tertiary Education Institution Bill and many others.
“Also, 12 constitution amendment bills out of the 24 passed by the Eighth Senate secured the endorsement of the 24 states Houses of Assembly as required by the constitution itself and were passed to the President for assent. Even though, President Buhari did not sign seven of them, the Reduction of Age for elections bill, financial autonomy for state legislature and judiciary bills, the law governing ascension tenure limits, the law governing the determination of pre-election matters, and the law governing the conduct of bye-elections by INEC were signed into law.
“The 319 bills passed by the Eighth Senate are more than all the bills passed by the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th Senate combined. The same thing is with the 192 petitions successfully attended to by the 8th Senate. Up till today, some of the innovations introduced by the Eighth Senate continue as a tradition in the Senate. One example is the idea of presenting different issues in a constitutional amendment process under separate Bills which allows the legislature to vote on them distinctly. In fact laws like the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), CAMA, Police Reforms Act, and the recently passed Electoral Act signed into law after passage by the current National Assembly were not different from the versions passed by the 8th Senate which were rejected for political reasons by the executive.
“The facts on the ground do not support the false claims made by the cheap propagandists in BMO whose relevance is decided by their genuflecting before government officials. If these ideologues are spreading falsehood, discerning Nigerians know the facts and they can decipher the difference.
“The Eighth Senate led by Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki did well for Nigeria. It represented the independence of the judiciary. It co-operated with the executive where necessary and that is why all the ministerial nominees sent to the Senate by Buhari were cleared and over 90 percent of the other executive nominees also got Senate endorsement.
“We, therefore, call on discerning members of the public to disregard the claims of the BMO as the ranting of propaganda machinery whose relevance is fast waning”, the SSG group.
